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07/25/1999 Archived Entry: "Chocolate Sauce That Hardens"

Here’s a recipe request that has not been so easy to fulfill – the chocolate sauce that soft-serve ice cream stands use to dip their cones. You know the kind. The warmed chocolate hardens into a shell when it touches the cold ice cream. I’m sure whatever it is they use is full of commercial stuff that isn’t part of the home kitchen pantry, so I will probably never get it exactly right. (I hesitate to use the word “chemicals,” because 1) everything is a chemical, even if naturally occurring, and 2) I don’t know what I’m talking about.)

The following works, however. It becomes hard on contact with the ice cream, but you must keep the sauce barely warm if you want it to coat the ice cream well. Be careful about this. If the sauce is too hot it won’t create a thick enough coating.
The sauce is nothing more than chocolate melted with butter, which makes it a kind of ganache, the confectioners’ and pastry chef’s term for the chocolate and butter (and/or cream) combination often used to fill chocolate truffles and to ice and fill fine cakes. This particular formula, which should be excellent for dipping strawberries, too, is adapted from a book called “The Best of Libby Hillman’s Kitchen” by Libby Hillman (The Countryman Press, 1993). Libby is an old friend. She used to co-ordinate the continuing education program in cooking at the Great Neck (Long Island) public schools. Now she lives in Vermont, near her daughter Betty Hillman, who is the chef-owner of Le Petit Chef in Wilmington, on Route 100, just south of the Mt. Snow skiing area. If you are in the vicinity, call for reservations: 802-464-8437. I hear Betty makes fabulous ice cream. If you visit, maybe she’ll make some of this hard chocolate sauce, too.


Hot Chocolate Sauce for Ice Cream
Makes about 1 cup

6 ounces dark chocolate (either bittersweet or semi-sweet), chopped
1 stick (1/4 pound) salted butter
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped (optional)

In a small saucepan, over low heat, melt the chocolate with the butter, stirring constantly. If desired, add walnuts. Keep warm – just melted -- not hot.

To coat ice cream in a cone, slowly spoon the sauce over the ball of ice cream, twirling the cone as you go. Make sure the ice cream is very hard. For a sundae, place a scoop of very hard ice cream in a long stemmed glass. Spoon chocolate sauce on top.